Tuesday, March 20, 2012

review: Zombie

*the
reader should be forewarned that the following article had originated
as only one chapter in a capsule reviews article, only to develop
into a monstrosity of a review for a single film, hence the atypical,
first person writing style which characterizes the first few lines,
something usually reserved for said capsule reviews. Because we were lazy, no alterations were made. Thank you

Zombie
aka Zombie 2 (1979, Lucio Fulci)

Reviews
for really 'out there' horror movies is, as many of you know, not
exactly a Between the Seats staple, but as was when last time around
in a capsule reviews article, I have been receiving a steady line of
70s and 80s gory horror flicks from a colleague at work. Consider it
an education in a genre I have overlooked for far too long. Some
cursory research indicates that the reason Fulci' 1979 film is
recognized as Zombie 2 is because upon its release, the studio's
mouth watered over the opportunity to cash in on the fact that in
Italy, George Romero's Dawn of the Dead was titled Zombie.
In truth, other than featuring
legions of walking dead, Fulci's film bears no connection to
Romero's.

Anyhow,
the story opens on a beautiful day with a mysterious sail boat floats
aimlessly in the waters between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The coast
guard embark the vessel, only to discover that a flesh eating zombie
is aboard! Zoink! Further investigation reveals that the ship
belonged to a dedicated scientist who operated somewhere in the
Antilles. His daughter Anne, played by Tisa Farrow, is terribly
worried about her father fate and together with a newspaper
journalist, Peter (Ian McCulloch), they head to the mysterious island
with the help of two American vacationers who themselves own a
sailboat. It comes as no surprise that their voyage to the ill fated
island is not as smooth as they had foreseen, which just enough
damage done to their vessel for them to make a quick getaway if need
be. Once there however, they make the acquaintance of a colleague of
Anne's father, a certain Dr. David Menard (Richard Johnson), who is
struggling with an epidemic afflicting far more islanders than
originally imagined. The the nature of the virus is unknown as of
yet, but those who easily swayed by voodoo tradition believe there is
evil spreading about in the roots of the earth, causing the dead to
rise up...and attack the living.

Zombie
is...this movie has...the thing about Fulci's film is that...See,
this where Between the Seats' lack of experience in horror comes into
play. Putting into words one's thoughts about a movie the likes of
Zombie is not as
simple as one might believe. There are several grades of horror
films. Some will aim for unsettling the audience via carefully
constructed, dreadful and slow hints at evil lurking in the shadows
or in the minds of antagonists. Other enjoy spooking the viewer with
surprise moments. Then come the films which do not seem entirely
interesting in actually frightening the audience, unless it means
giving them some absolutely horrific visuals, and perhaps dabbing a
little bit in creating a sense of dread for good measure. That is, in
essence, what Italian legend Lucio Fulci constructs in Zombie,
a movie so blatantly joyful about its gore and ridiculously over the
top moments that it becomes difficult not to have fun with it. Truth
be told, the film is not remotely 'scary' per say. There are a few
moments when Fulci and company make attempts at surprising the viewer
with the violent appearance of a monster, but those instances fall so
terribly flat on their faces that the film smartly abandons them
about halfway through. What sort of surprise could there be with
zombie anyhow, even back in the late 1970s? By then these hellish
undead creatures had already become staples of horror cinema, not to
mention that they cannot manoeuvre with great skill or speed.
Surprising? Not in the slightest.

Where
the dread factor comes into play is in the knowledge that the
protagonists are temporarily stranded on a remote island with an
increasing number of zombie raising from their graves. Somewhere on
this forsaken island, someone is rhythmically beating a drum,
incessantly producing a sound which causes these foul monstrosities
to abandon their solemn graves and take over the inhabitants of the
island. That in of itself is scary. When will the zombies get there?
How many of them are there exactly? Who exactly is playing that
obnoxious drum beat? These questions are pleasantly never answered,
thus forcing the film to focus solely on two things: the possible
survival of the heroes and the disgusting zombies once they make
their presence known in full force.

In
the tradition of films of this ilk, Zombie
is, by most standards, cheaply made. The acting is, even in the
better moments, borderline adequate, with only Richard Johnson
bringing any sort of heft to his role as the doctor scientist
obsessed with treating his terribly ill patients all the while in his
mind he is arriving increasingly close to the conclusion that, first,
medicine cannot explain what is transpiring and, second, he and his
visitors are most likely doomed to die. The rest of the cast puts on
performance on par with what one can expect from a film simply titled
Zombie (read:
average-to-really-bad). Whatever focus is lacking on the human actors
is invested in the zombie makeup and camera work, both of which are
terrific. Praising monster makeup in a Fulci film is nothing
unexpected, but when zombies look as barf-inducing as they do in many
scenes here, credit is clearly due. Some of the early scenes feature
some rather simple looking creature, but those which rise out of the
soil prior to the amazing climax are absolutely revolting, complete
with worms coming out of their mouths and empty eye sockets. What
some might not anticipate is how solid the cinematography is as well.
Lucio Fulci flexes his muscles in Zombie,
providing some really interesting swoop and pan shots of zombies
walking down dirt roads, some zombie POV shots either as they leave
their graves or just before having their heads blown off. Another
brilliant occurs when both Peter and Anne are resting on the ground.
With the camera set barely above ground level, we see Peter close in
to kiss Anne. The frame then crawls a few inches away to a reveal a
hand emerge out of the ground only a foot or two away from Anne's
hair. Why on earth would the two protagonists choose such a terrible
moment and terrible place to embrace is besides the point. This is
the sort of film where the shots matter, not the logic in the
sequence of events.

There
are plenty of fun moments to had as well, with Fulci taking some fun
liberties with what sort of misadventures both the human and zombie
characters can get themselves in. When the Dr. Menard's wife is is
trying to push her bathroom door shut to prevent a zombie from
entering, she inadvertently chops off its fingers which gripped
through the doorway. An even more incredible sequence transpires just
prior to the arrival on the island, when the female American
vacationer decides to go scuba diving (topless, naturally). She is
attacked by both a shark and an underwater zombie. The best part is
that she manages to flee leaving, and this is not a joke, the shark
and the underwater zombie to duke it out.

Zombie
is far from a great cinematic achievement. Other directors came
before and would come after that produced superior zombie movies.
Nevertheless, there is a boat load of fun to be had with Lucio
Fulci's 1979 gore fest. It is funny, wild, features some inventive,
clever cinematography and, of course, appropriately horrid zombie
makeup.

@3guys1movie: Well, I would still proceed with a level of caution. The acting really isn't all that good and there are some pretty weird things about (like how the score sounds like something out of an original Nintendo video game). Still, there's plenty to enjoy.